The Residents Go, the Music Stays

Lost Bohemia

“Lost Bohemia” tracks the eviction of the studio photographer Editta Sherman, pictured, as well as other occupants of the apartments above Carnegie Hall.Credit
Josef Astor

“Lost Bohemia,” a new documentary by Josef Astor, is a sad and spirited elegy for the Carnegie Hall Studios, which for more than a century provided working, living and teaching space for all kinds of artists on the floors above the famous concert hall. Mr. Astor, a photographer who moved into the building in 1985, pays tribute to his neighbors and friends who made up the last generation of studio residents. He also acknowledges the famous ghosts who haunt the place, ranging from Isadora Duncan and Enrico Caruso to Marilyn Monroe and Martha Graham.

It is staggering to contemplate how much of New York’s cultural history is contained in the square feet Mr. Astor — known to his neighbors as Birdman — surveys. And it is infuriating, though not surprising, to witness how efficiently it is wiped away. Much of the film chronicles the eviction of the last tenants, displaced by a renovation plan intended to replace their homes and workplaces with new studios and offices.

Photo

Carnegie HallCredit
Josef Astor

The last residents moved out last year, and while “Lost Bohemia” mourns their dispossession, it also allows us to spend time in their eccentric, artistic company and to appreciate their contribution to the life of the city. Among them are Bill Cunningham, the New York Times photographer who is the subject of a marvelous recent documentary, and Don Shirley, a pianist who recalls playing with Duke Ellington “downstairs” — that is, in Carnegie Hall itself.

An anonymous, unseen poet who lives above Mr. Astor and leaves him eloquent phone messages observes that studios and the hall below, though commissioned by a plutocrat, “were built not on power, but on love.” The power of this documentary resides in that proud and fragile sentiment.

LOST BOHEMIA

Opens on Friday in Manhattan.

Directed by Josef Astor; edited by Adam Zucker, Shelby Siegel and Michael Taylor; music by Lev Zhurbin; produced by Jody Shields and Jonathan Ferrantelli; released by Impact Partners and This Is That. At the IFC Center, 323 Avenue of the Americas, at Third Street, Greenwich Village. Running time: 1 hour 17 minutes. This film is not rated.